Processes and systems for depositing coating systems, and components coated therewith

Abstract

Processes and systems for forming a coating system on a component. The process of forming the coating system on the component includes placing an apparatus in a location that promotes coating particles in flight to be redirected towards a surface on the component. The surface is obstructed by portions of the component limiting line-of-sight from a source of the coating particles to the surface. The coating particles are then deposited onto the surface of the component. The coating particles initially travel in a direction of initial particle travel and are redirected by the apparatus towards the surface on the component at a direction of final particle travel relative to the surface. The line-of-site from the source of the coating particles is at an angle of less than 30 degrees relative to the surface of the component and the direction of final particle travel is at an angle of 30 degrees or more relative to the surface of the component.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61 / 670,171, filed Jul. 11, 2012, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH[0002]This invention was made with government support under Contract No. N00019-04-C-0093 awarded by U.S. Government (Department of Defense, Air Force). The Government has certain rights in the invention.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]The present invention generally relates to coating systems and processes for their deposition. More particularly, this invention relates to a process and system for forming a coating on a component by redirecting coating particles during a spray deposition process.[0004]Various coating processes have been developed to deposit metallic and ceramic coating materials capable of surviving and remaining adherent in chemically and thermally hostile environments such as those of a gas turbine. Examples in...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The invention allows for spray coating surfaces even when the angle at which the spray reaches the surface is low. This is achieved by using an apparatus to redirect the coating particles towards the surface on the component to be coated. This results in a uniform coating and improved efficiency in spray coating.

Problems solved by technology

The line-of-sight accessibility of articles can be a major limitation in the design of gas turbine engine components.

The resulting coating is not uniform, and shows areas on the surface of the seal tooth 12 with almost no coating.

Further, with restricted line-of-sight accessibility, the robustness of the coating quality is reduced and may not be repeatable.

Both of these issues introduce a significant amount of variation into the thermal spray process.

Historically, components have also been designed to account for line-of-sight limitations of coating deposition processes to achieve increased spray access angles, though potentially at the expense of weight or performance.

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